The Rubble Of Memory Is All That Remains
by Dark of Dawn
Summary: Sometimes the hardest thing to do can be to let go.


**The Rubble Of Memory Is All That Remains**

_Thursday, 24th_

_8:12pm_

_Gotham City_

It was Thursday evening and the light thrumming of rain on the window alerted Dick to the worsening weather. He sighed as he closed the lid to his laptop and slid off of the bed to walk to the window.

_Rain again, huh? So not feeling the aster right now. Nobody will want to go out to the cinema now, or play football or walk the dog or... _He sighed once more. It wasn't as if _he _had been planning to do any of that. He never could. Not anymore, despite Bruce and Alfred's persistent encouragement to go out and enjoy himself more often.

_Whatever! _Dick scoffed as he pulled out his phone, flicking through the contacts until Wally West's face appeared on the screen, his bright red hair and large grin shattering the depressing atmosphere of the room. Quickly, he selected the 'call' option and waited impatiently through the ringing. He found himself sighing once more as the answering machine replied instead of his best friend, but opted to leave a message anyway.

"Hey KF! You never pick up the phone anymore... but anyway, I really want to hang out sometime because we haven't in like a billion years! So yeah... Talk to you later dude".

Dick shoved his phone into his jacket pocket again and was about to open his laptop when someone knocked on his bedroom door.

"Richard? Are you alright in there? You haven't come out in a while" came the concerned voice through the door.

Dick jumped into action immediately, whipping out his phone once more and deleting his recent calls from its memory.

"Yeah Bruce, I'm fine. You and Alfie worry too much, you know?" He called out in as non-chalant a voice as he could manage.

At this reply, Bruce walked into the room, before squinting and flicking the light switch by the doorway.

"For crying out loud, Dick! Why do you keep it so dark in here? It's like a troll cave or something" He teased, smiling warmly at his ward. Dick knew that he was safe from being discovered once again.

"Hey, I happen to like the dark. Besides, you can hardly talk about caves, because I think the Bat-cav-"

"Okay, okay!" Bruce chuckled. "You win! Anyway, Alfred wanted me to get you; it's dinner now and I think we'd both like to see our favourite troll at least once today, okay?". The older man smiled kindly once more before turning to walk out of the room. Dick sat down on the bed, hugging his knees to his chest, before pulling out his phone to stare at the photo of Wally once more.

"They can't know. I can fix it myself" he whispered before snapping the phone shut and hopping off of the bed and down to dinner.

Breakline-

_Friday 25th_

_12:43am_

_Gotham Academy_

Richard Grayson sat alone at a table in Gotham Academy's cafeteria. Normally he would have at least had Barbara Gordon, the Commissioner's daughter, to talk to, but she was absent from school today, with the flu. It was times like these where he felt especially lonely and misplaced and the longing to be back with the eccentric, but loving circus 'family' that he had grown up in became stronger. He really needed a friend to talk to...

"Hey Rob! You eating by yourself _again_ dude?"

Dick jumped, startled, and his head snapped up to stare into the friendly eyes of Wally West. He would always remember the vibrant green colour of his best friend's eyes.

"Hey Wally, it's awesome you're here because I'm tota-" But before he could continue, Dick was cut off by a cruel and taunting voice behind him.

"Ha! Get a load of Grayson, being a nutty loner again! You belong in the psycho ward, circus freak" Michael Hunt, the school's nastiest bully chortled, clearly pleased with himself.

"I hate when these jerks do this!" Richard muttered to Wally. "They think they're so clever..."

However, Michael, as thick as he was, seemed to have recognised the insult within Dick's comment. He turned back from laughing with his followers to face the smaller boy with narrowed eyes and a ferocious snarl.

"What's that Circus Boy? Saying stupid things to yourself again, huh, idiot?" He growled, his face become redder and redder. Dick was about to reply that, no, he wasn't talking to himself and that Michael really shouldn't insult his intelligence when he, himself had been forced to retake a school year, when he reasoned that the likelihood of that solving the issue was slim to nothing.

"Don't let them get to you Dickie. They're just jealous of you" Wally comforted, with a sad smile. "Although he has a point about the loner thing. If you just got a friend..."

"I have you."

"I don't count."

"Just leave it Wally, okay?"

Breakline-

_Saturday 26th_

_11:37am_

_Happy Harbour_

_Recognized: Robin, B-01_

As soon as the computerized voice announced his arrival, Dick felt a flood of relief flow through him. He was free! Safe from the jerks at school and the overprotectiveness of Bruce and Alfred. He could finally be himself in the comfort of his teammates.

He strolled casually into the TV room, expecting to see his M'gann burning something or other, Artemis arguing and Kaldur trying to keep everyone happy and calm. Instead, he was quite surprised to find nobody in the room but him. Shrugging to himself, Dick hopped on to the couch and opened his laptop. After a few minutes of failed attempts to hack a security system from another city, Dick sighed and realised, once more, how lonely he truly was.

_If only KF was here..._

Just as he was thinking this, he looked up to find Kid Flash sitting on the couch next to him, frowning at him in a disapproving manner.

"This isn't healthy, you know?" The red head scolded, gesturing at himself and the boy wonder. "You and I both realise that you need to let go"

"Not you too KF..." Robin groaned, hiding his face in his hands. "It's bad enough with Bruce constantly on my case about how to deal with grief and moving on and blah, blah, blah. As if I haven't heard it before.

"You don't listen though, Rob" The speedster started. "You can't keep doing this forever. It's no-"

"Why can't I?" The smaller boy screamed. "I'm miserable at school and lonely all of the time, and you're telling me that I'm not allowed to do the one thing that actually helps me make it through each day? This is all your fault!" And with that, the younger male had slammed close the lid of his laptop and stormed off, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Breakline-

_Saturday 26th_

_11:41am_

_Happy Harbour_

Kaldur had been sitting on his bed, reading and enjoying the quiet peacefulness of the moment, when he was disrupted by loud voices coming from outside of his room. His expression changed from one of confusion to concern when he realised that the screaming voice belonged to Robin, the team's youngest member. He'd only heard the boy arrive a few minutes ago and so was confused about what he could be upset about so quickly upon arriving.

Curious, Kaldur stood up form his bed and left his room, walking down the corridor to the main sitting room. Upon turning the corner, he was passed by a very distressed looking Robin, who ran past him before he could say a word. Just as he was about to turn back once more to follow Robin, he was surprised, instead, to notice Conner standing outside of the sitting room that Robin had just hastily exited, with an unnerved expression on his usually stoic face. Slightly suspicious, Kaldur moved towards conner with a small frown on his face.

"Conner, did you do something to upset Robin? He seemed very distraught just now as he passed me by" Kaldur questioned, trying not to sound too accusing, knowing that Superboy's temper could spark at even the slightest remark.

But instead, he was met with more confusion on the part of the clone. Conner turned towards him with a troubled look on his face.

"No, I only came down here to see what the yelling was about" the boy of steel answered quietly, his eyebrows furrowed.

Kaldur, sensing that there was something that the clone was not telling him, pressed further.

"Is something else wrong besides our obviously upset teammate? You seem worried my friend" the leader offered carefully.

He expected the normally silent boy of steel to ignore him or perhaps shrug in response, having not really committed to friendly conversation in the past. He was slightly concerned when, rather than shutting him out, Conner turned to face him fully, his eyes wide.

"Robin was yelling very loudly" the clone whispered.

Kaldur almost rolled his eyes in relief, thankful that this was all that had led to Superboy's concern.

"While it is nice that you are worried for our friend, Conner, I don't believe that is a reason to be overly distressed. He was clearly angry at whoever was with him in the room, but everyone argues with someone once and a while and perha-" But his calm reply was cut off by quiet words which shook him to the core.

"No Kaldur, he was arguing, but I looked in to see who with and...there was no one in the room with him".

Breakline-

Richard Grayson sat, curled on his bed in his room at Happy Harbour, sobbing quietly. To his chest, he held a photo frame, holding a photo of himself and Wallace West, taken about two years ago. That had been a fantastic day, when Bruce and Barry had decided to take the two to a carnival for the entire day. The photo was a great reminder of the event, but brought with it some sadder memories too, that Dick was trying hard to forget.

Wally West had been killed three months ago as Kid Flash in what was supposed to be a covert mission for the team of young heroes. He had been attempting to help hundreds of civilians to escape from a building where there was a bomb getting ready to explode. Realising that there wouldn't be enough time to remove all of the civilians safely, Wally had grabbed the bomb that Robin had been trying, unsuccessfully, to disarm, and ignoring the frightened commands of his leader and the anguished screams of his best friend, had run with all of his speed, as far away from the city as he could. Unfortunately, the bomb had been very unstable and the high speeds had caused it to explode before the brave hero had had the chance to throw it into the sea. He had died a courageous hero, never to be forgotten.

Dick recalled all of this painfully, remembering how he had blamed himself for not disarming the bomb fast enough, before refusing to come to terms with the death of his best friend. His utter denial of the fact and his loneliness had led him to obsessive thinking about Wally, until he could practically see and hear the speedster as if he were still alive.

Dick's choked sobs died down as he composed himself once more. _Wally wouldn't want me to be like this. He'd want me to look after myself, not to act like a crazy kid with no friends. Just because he's not here to talk to, won't mean I'm forgetting him, right?_

With this is mind, the young hero reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialling the number of his foster father.

"Dick, is everything alright?" the familiar voice questioned.

Taking a deep breath and glancing one last time at the photograph, Dick replied in a shaky voice:

"I think you were right. I need some help. Even Wally knows it"


End file.
